The Chinese Botanist’s Daughters

Despite its title, The Chinese Botanist’s Daughters was banned in China because of its queer content. This, even after China had produced multiple movies with queer male protagonists such as Farewell my Concubine and East Palace, West Palace. China’s loss, really. The Chinese Botanist’s Daughters is beautiful and moving. China missed out by not claiming this film as part of its cinematic culture.

The lead of the film is Li Ming. She is sent to intern at a botanist’s house. The botanist in question is basically the worst but Li Ming bonds immediately with his daughter, An. Seriously, Li Ming lead wastes no time in expressing her affection. Fifteen minutes in and she’s already staring longingly at An and saying she’s beautiful. Li Ming and An are together by the half hour mark.

Despite this quickly established relationship, it doesn’t feel rushed. Their connection is well-depicted and beautiful. I could watch a whole movie of just the early scenes where Li Ming and An are just learning plants together and forging a connection before the conflict happens.

Because man, the first act is not a good representation of the movie as a whole. Things get really hard and really sad really fast and then it just keeps going in that direction. The bad times begin when when in order to stay with An, Li Ming marries An’s brother. And because that wasn’t bad enough, he’s an abusive piece of human garbage. In the third act, An and Li Ming’s relationship is discovered and things go from bad to worse.

Even as the movie progresses and becomes harder, the scenes of Li Ming and An alone remain gorgeous. It’s a stunning juxtaposition of everything being hard except the scenes shared between the two women. Those scenes have an almost fantasy-like quality to them. The music and filming become more romantic and beautiful, as if the only way these women can see the beauty in the world is when they’re together.

Director Sijie Dai is really, really talented. So much of this film relies on its visuals and they more than rise to the occasion. Sijie Dai is really a director who understands that with the medium of film, it is better to show than tell. And everything he shows us is stunning.

The cinematography in The Chinese Botanist’s Daughters is gorgeous. Shot after shot looks like a painting in a museum. The scene composition? Exquisite. The atmosphere? Stunning. The Chinese Botanist’s Daughters is one of the most visually beautiful WLW films I’ve ever seen.

Beautiful though this film is, it is also tragic. It is incredibly hard to watch these women experience the ugliness of the world. More than usual, I wanted these characters to be healthy or at least live to see the end credits. Neither of those things happen. I’d also really hoped the death in this movie would’ve been Li Ming and An using their plant knowledge to poison at least one person. This doesn’t happen which I think is a total missed opportunity. There’s whole scenes of them learning which plants are poisonous. Why even put those in the movie if you’re not gonna poison someone?!

Tragic or not, The Chinese Botanist’s Daughters is an incredibly beautiful film. Featuring a well-developed love story and some truly top-notch cinematography, The Chinese Botanist’s Daughters is a stunning and moving film to behold. The only reason it’s not on my list of top 10 WLW films of all time is because I’m sensitive it’s too damn sad.

Overall rating: 9/10

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